My next laptop and printer

Unless plans change drastically, here's what my research shows about what printer I want next and what laptop I want next. This all came about because of the issue I was having with Epson Scan Settings which turned out to be a hidden window in Windows 10 which I fixed.

The reasoning behind the laptop is that I still think I want the 2 TB hard drive, but I'd like a smaller display. I would like it not to be HP, in case HP bloatware was causing problems, but who knows.

The reasoning behind the printer is that I'd like a cloud printer that I can also use from windows, but it needs to have double sided scanning and double sided printing, like the 840 that I have now.

These are currently saved for later in my amazon cart

2017 Newest Lenovo Business Flagship High Performance Laptop PC 15.6" HD Anti-Glare Display Intel i7-7500U Processor 16GB DDR4 RAM 2TB HDD DVD-RW Bluetooth Webcam HDMI Dolby Audio Windows 10-Silver

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B076H6YH5M/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2R87W6XPBZ1J4

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4740 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer, Copier, Scanner with Wi-Fi Direct

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N7RZC9G/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Windows 10 firewall blocking internet access

So this morning, November 2, 2017, I booted my Windows 10 laptop, and had no internet access. The browser page said that internet access is blocked.

I tried turning off the Windows Defender firewall, and then was able to get internet access.

Later I turned on the firewall again, and was able to get internet access.

I have no idea what caused it and I have no idea what fixed it. It seems random.

Googling didn't get me far. I did find a discussion about a different firewall causing such a problem, and the recommendation was turn off this setting: block internet connection sharing

I don't know if there's an equivalent for Windows Defender firewall.

Solved! When the usual methods for restoring a Windows window to the screen don't work

Do you have an off-screen window in Windows 10?

I had this problem too.

I am using Windows 10. I This post is about what happened when I ran Epson Scan Settings, which is nothing more than an exe file, and it didn't show up on the screen. I believe that the remedy I found, which I found nowhere online, is much more broad. It might work for you.

So if you have a process or exe that seems hidden, and all you can see is its thumbnail, and all the usual methods you find by googling don't work, try what I did. It worked.

What led up to the failure of Epson Scan Settings

This is just some background for my own notes.

I use the Workforce 840 for both printing and scanning. But suddenly I had some scan problems. At first, the symptom was that both print and scan wouldn't work.

So after rebooting everything including the router, which brought not joy, I ended up going into Windows and doing a remove device. Then I added the device again by IP address by choosing "the printer that I want isn't listed." I had retrieved that IP address directly from the printer by running a check on the network on the front display of the printer. It prints out a status page which, happily, includes the IP.

Printing was now fixed, but scan still wasn't fixed. So I figured I needed to update the IP in Epson Scan Settings, but this was when I started tearing my hair out. Epson Scan settings won't run. All I got was the thumbnail preview. The window was nowhere to be found.

After a few reinstalls, a full malware scan, a sfc /scannow, and a few sleepless nights, it occurred to me that maybe the Epson Settings Settings Window was just hidden for some reason.

By the way, the specific exe was ESCFG.exe which is in C:\Windows\twain_32\escndv.

How I failed to fix Epson Scan Settings

I googled keywords like "off-screen window in Windows 10." Here are all the fixes I found, including directly from the Microsoft site, and tried, and which brought no joy:

Changing the resolution
Right clicking the item in the taskbar and selecting "move"
Cascading the windows in the taskbar
Right clicking the item in the taskbar and selecting "maximize"

How I successfuly fixed Epson Scan Settings

Then, in the middle of the night, it occured to me that I don't know whether the task is actually running, and that I could find out in Task Manager. This ended up leading to the fix.

I believe this remedy can possibly apply to anything in Windows that seems to be running but is hidden. I've written the steps specific to Epson Scan Settings.

Open task manager
Find Epson Scan in running apps
Open the little arrow, and you will see Epson Scan Settings (yes this was proof it really was running).
Right-click on Epson Scan Settings and click "maximize"
This brings joy. You'll see the window in full screen size. Now you can resize it. And it seems to be permanently visible, as I tried running it several times.
Now back to fixing the problem at hand: I was able to see the IP address. As it turned out, the IP address was correct, so I deleted the scanner from Epson Scan Settings, and then added it again by letting the settings find the printer, but that didn't work either, so I deleted the scanner again, and added it by typing in the specific IP. I guess this was just a bit flipping glitch.